Broken by the Man I Loved

Grandmother's hands were shaking, and all at once she slapped her own face.

I caught both her hands, and something inside me sank.

"What's wrong?"

Two lines of clouded tears slid down, her lips trembling.

"Some men just now, they broke into the ward and took that card."

"It's my fault, I'm useless. I couldn't protect it!"

She beat at her own legs, her face full of regret.

I opened my mouth, but no sound would come out, and the world went dark in waves before my eyes.

She gripped my arm, the hatred in her eyes almost spilling over.

"Those men, they're the same ones who came yesterday to seize our house!"

I thought of Zoey Swanson, the woman I'd run into downstairs. That unreadable smile of hers.

It was her!

I spun around and ran.

From a distance I could already see her, that figure in the wheelchair.

"Zoey Swanson!"

I ran up to her with red eyes and held out my hand.

"Give me back the money!"

She tilted her head, all innocence.

"Odette, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Stop pretending!"

I grabbed her wheelchair and begged.

"Whatever you have against me, take it out on me. I don't even want Ned anymore. Just give me back the money."

"I'm begging you. All I want is the money."

She stared at me for a moment, and then her eyes slowly went red, her body starting to tremble.

"Odette, you're scaring me."

The next second something wrenched me aside.

Ned had my arm, fury churning in his eyes.

"You really never learn. Kicking up a scene in front of Zoey again."

"Looks like yesterday I went too easy on you."

I laughed a few times, the dull ache tearing at my chest, and the look I gave him was dead of everything.

"I only want her to give me back the money."

Ned's brows drew together.

"You lost some money?"

"If it's gone, you earn it back. What are you doing throwing a tantrum in front of Zoey?"

I threw off his arm and screamed until I broke.

"There's no time! I don't have time to earn it back!"

That set Ned off too, and he slapped me across the face.

"What do you mean, no time!"

"You've just been spoiled by me too long, and the laziness in your bones is coming out!"

"You're a piece of mud that'll never hold to a wall."

He used to say I was wild grass, tough, one of a kind, that he was drawn to me deeply.

Now he called me mud.

My throat worked, and I swallowed the mouthful of sweet iron.

He turned Zoey's wheelchair around and walked away.

"Odette, I'm truly so disappointed in you."

I stood there rigid, and I didn't miss the flash of triumph in Zoey's eyes.

Inside her drooping sleeve, the familiar face of the card caught the light for an instant.

I lunged, and Ned kicked me away.

Then two bodyguards pinned me hard to the ground.

"Odette, enough!"

The wound in my chest seemed to be getting worse, and black spots began breaking across my vision.

From somewhere off came a sudden burst of commotion.

A nurse ran past, her face grave.

"Someone jumped from the inpatient building. They've confirmed there's no pulse."

"Just admitted last night. I heard it was because their money got stolen."

The voices around me blurred and drifted off, until all I could hear was my own ragged breathing.

In the end I couldn't hold it back, and coughed up a mouthful of sweet blood.

As my mind slipped away, I felt someone lift me up.

They were talking.

"Take her back."

"The boss said her life belongs to the fight club now."

Little by little, my mind sank all the way into the dark.

……

The hospital parking lot.

Ned lifted Zoey from the wheelchair and set her carefully into the back seat.

As he straightened up, someone came running over and said a few words close to his ear.

The next second, Ned's face changed completely.